Join us to celebrate Somerset Day 2023

Somerset is the story of my wonderful life. Born 84 years ago here in Pilton, surrounded by dairy cows from the start. Chapel twice a week and the highlights of the summer were trips to Burnham on the train through the beautiful Somerset levels, where thousands of wading birds would rise from the water to the sound of the oncoming steam-train. In Burnham we played our hot summer days on the beach, riding donkeys and watching Punch and Judy. Pretty Somerset girls to take to Bridgwater fair every year and the one I chose to marry, I married in Burnham Methodist chapel. So, you can see why I love Somerset so much!

I love Somerset above all other counties in England. In particular, it has the best National Park in the whole world – Exmoor – where I have spent the happiest days of my life.

I love Somerset because it’s where I feel most myself

I have lived in Somerset for thirty-four years, longer than I lived in Yorkshire. Somerset has everything that I left behind when I moved here (or else I would never have been tempted away from Yorkshire). Somerset is so beautiful: it has hills, moors, a gorge, caves and a coastline. It has castles, cathedrals, grand estates and cottages. It has a wealth of wildlife in the woods, waterways and wetlands. I never tire of its beauty, there is always something to see throughout every season. Most of all what I like about Somerset is that the people made us welcome and continue to do so. As a head teacher I was always supported by my lovely parents as together we looked after their children.

Somerset is my birthplace, my home, it is part of my soul.  Murmurations of starlings; sunrise behind the silhouette of Glastonbury Tor; the glow on the evening horizon from a trillion Carnival-float light bulbs or the throbbing heartbeat of the headline Festival act on a still summers night – these are the essence of my Somerset.

Everything about the word ‘Somerset’ conjures up images that cheer and inspire, that melt the heart and ease the mind. For once, it’s a word and a county that doesn’t disappoint.

I’m very proud to live in Somerset and wholeheartedly recommend the quality of life it has to offer. Somerset Day is a fitting tribute to celebrate this big and beautiful county, so come along on 11th May and find out for yourself.

“Somerset is full of such amazing traditions, such as the Wassail Ceremony, which reminds people today of the county’s cider making heritage and how lucky we are to have such a wealth of apple orchards across the county. I am Somerset born and bred, my Great Grandfather was a farmer on the very same Myrtle Farm where we still make our cider today. I’m so proud of the heritage of our family that we’re now carrying on into our fifth generation, we can honestly say we are living our heritage.
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We’re looking forward to once again being part of this year’s Somerset Day celebrations, and joining with groups, organisations, businesses and individuals across the county in flying the flag for Somerset.”

It’s an honour and a privilege to be patron of Somerset Day and I have great admiration for it’s foundation and for those who run it each year. It is a celebration of this unique and wonderful county, the like of which exists nowhere else in the world, and of the marvellous people who live here.

Somerset is a county of stunning contrasts. The Levels or Wetlands often take on a mystical, medieval aspect, especially in a soft autumn mist. The Quantocks grip you with an austere and rugged beauty, offering walkers fabulous views to the east and west, and north across the Bristol channel to Wales. Exmoor, the land of RD Blackmore’s Lorna Doone, oozes romance with its dramatic seascapes, its stark moorland, hidden coombs, rushing streams and leafy woodlands. And then there are the beech-clad Blackdown Hills, the quieter, gentler uplands of our county.

I was deeply honoured to be asked to be a patron of Somerset Day. I’ve always felt it was an inspired idea to promote our beautiful county which, in my opinion, is too often under-sold. Somerset truly is a great county to live, work and play and anything I can do to shout about that I will!